{IMGR}Parc Ferme Interviews - Conducted by James Hinchcliffe

Charles, the Ferrari's been quick this weekend, easily the second-best team, but did you guys think you had that kind of pace in qualifying?
Charles Leclerc: I mean, today, I don't understand anything in Formula 1! Honestly, the whole qualifying has been extremely difficult. When I say extremely difficult, it's not exaggerating. It was super, super difficult. It was difficult for us to get to Q2, it was difficult for us to get to Q3. In Q3 the conditions changed a little bit, everything became a lot trickier, and I knew I just had to do a clean lap to target third. At the end of the day, it's pole position. I definitely did not expect that.

Little speechless, almost. You mentioned the conditions changing. How much could you feel that on the racetrack? Q1 it was sunny, it was warm. By Q3 we've got this cloud cover, it's really cooled down. Could you feel that grip change on the track?
CL: Yeah, I could definitely feel it a lot. I was also a bit on the lower side of the downforce, so when the rain started in Q2 I was just hoping that it wouldn't stay there. It didn't. The conditions changed, which made everything very tricky. And at the end, we are on pole position. Honestly, I have no words. Yeah, it's probably one of the best pole positions I've ever had because it's the most unexpected for sure.

Last week, Oscar said qualifying on pole at Spa maybe not the best place to start pole. Here, a great place to start pole position, track position so important. How confident are you going into the race you can lead out of Turn 1 and bring this win home?
CL: Yeah, I mean the start and Turn 1 will be key. I have no idea how it will go, but one thing for sure is that I'll do absolutely everything in order to keep that first place. If we manage to do that, then that should make our life easier for the rest of the race.

Oscar, you're going line up P2, front row on the grid tomorrow. Let's start with just how your run went and talk us through how much the track and the conditions changed from Q1 to Q3. Because in Q1 you guys were the class of the field, and by Q3 it looked like a real struggle.
Oscar Piastri: Yeah, I think the wind changed a lot. It always sounds so pathetic blaming things on the wind, but the wind basically did a 180 from Q2 to Q3. And yeah, it just meant a lot of the corners felt completely different. My first lap in Q3 felt pretty terrible because I wasn't used to it. And then I thought the second lap was a lot better, but it was even slower. So yeah, just difficult to judge in those conditions and maybe not the best execution, but I was a bit surprised that we couldn't go quicker than that. Second is still a decent spot to start, so we'll see what we can do tomorrow.

Your car changing and your grip changing is one thing, but were you expecting another team in Ferrari and Charles to be able to find that amount of pace and actually get pole position?
OP: Yeah, I mean, Charles has been quick all weekend. Even this morning he was closer than we expected. Things just changed a little bit and I guess he did a very good job. So yeah, well done to him. I wasn't expecting to be second to a Ferrari this weekend, but he's done a good job. It's going to be a fun race tomorrow with a bit more involved.

Can't wait to see the first corner action, thanks. Lando, you're going to be lining up third place for the Grand Prix tomorrow. I hate to say it, maybe a little bit of a disappointment to not have a McLaren one-two lockout?
Lando Norris: I mean, yeah. From how our form is, of course. But I think Charles did a good job on the last lap, probably risked a little bit more in these conditions. The wind changed a lot and really seemed to punish us in a bigger way. So, I mean, not too many complaints. We thought we both did some good laps at the end, and we were just slow. Nothing to complain of, but Charles did a good job.

How tough was it to make these tyres last? I mean, throughout practice it looked like it was a one-lap tyre, but sometimes in qualifying it looked like it wasn't even a one-lap tyre.
LN: Yeah, it's just, I mean, it's a long lap with many corners, so it's tricky. But by Q2 I think we showed how quick we can go and our advantage. But as soon as the wind changed everything went away and the last sector became even trickier again. Not an easy lap to put things together. When you do it, it feels nice. When you don't, like in Q3, not so happy.

Obviously, going into tomorrow, kind of two objectives. You want to win the race, but you also want to try to close the gap to Oscar in the Drivers' Championship. What's the bigger focus for you going into Turn 1 tomorrow?
LN: Both. I want to go forward and I want to win. And if I can do that then I'll get points. I think it's going to be an exciting race. I would expect us to have a bit more pace than Charles, so I'm looking forward to it.

Press Conference

What a lap, Charles. You said on Thursday that this is a track at which you've never gone well. Not this time, you're P1. Tell us about the lap.
CL: Well, today is a day where I don't understand anything anymore in motorsport! I mean, honestly, qualifying felt horrible. From the first lap to maybe the penultimate lap, everything felt out of place. It really felt like we had done a step backwards from FP3. And in terms of competitiveness, Q1 I was on the limit, barely made it to Q2. Q2 I was on the limit, I mean, I did quite a big mistake in Turn 4, but still, it wasn't easy to get to Q3. And then Q3, the conditions I think changed for everybody. I basically just did a clean lap, which I think was a really good lap because those conditions were very difficult to get everything right. And I did, but I was really happy about the lap, and it's probably the biggest, the most surprising pole position I've ever done. I think after FP3 it wouldn't have been so surprising. But after Q1 and Q2, I really thought we would struggle to get into the top five even. So, I'm very happy.

Just tell us a little bit more about those last laps in Q3 and how much harder the conditions made it. Did the conditions actually come towards your car a little bit more than the McLaren drivers?
CL: I mean, I don't drive the McLaren car, so it's difficult to comment but for sure the car was a lot more difficult in Q3 than it was in Q2, but then I don't know if it's more difficult compared to the McLaren or easier. But for sure, we gained competitiveness not only towards the McLaren, but towards everybody in Q3. Because when I finished the lap, I really thought that this was probably good enough for P3 just, but definitely not P1. So, it was a good surprise. However, it also felt worse for me from Q2 to Q3. It was just very tricky.

Charles, it's been a tough season for Ferrari. Now granted you say this is a surprise, but just how much of a boost is it for the team?
CL: It's a big boost. I mean, the team has been pushing like crazy to bring upgrades. Last weekend the team brought an upgrade as well, and it helped us to go in the right direction. We didn't know how much. And as I said in Spa, I think we need to judge over a few races and not only one. But yes, to be able to be on pole position today is amazing, and it means that we are doing something right. So, again, I think for many things I did not expect to be on pole also because I was saying on Thursday, this is probably the worst track for me statistically over the season. I've always trailed. But this weekend, for some reason, I found some pace. So yeah, it's good.

Charles, it's difficult to overtake here. How much confidence do you have that you can win this Grand Prix on Sunday?
CL: I mean, I don't know. I think there's some rain around tomorrow, so if that is the case, then it's obviously easier to overtake. But it's always better to be starting first, especially on this track. So, I'm very happy with my starting position and now full focus on trying to keep it tomorrow.

Oscar, let's come to you now. How do you sum up what we've just witnessed in Q3 in particular?
OP: Depends where you're sat. If you're sat where Charles is, fantastic. If you're sat where I'm sat, bizarre and somewhat frustrating. But yeah, I mean, I think the conditions completely changed, and it was just weird. My first lap felt terrible because I was pushing too much and kind of with the wind direction from the first two sessions in mind. So, then I felt like I did a better job on the second lap of managing expectations, and it was even worse. So yeah, a bizarre session, but I need to look back and see what differences it made. Things definitely felt more tricky for myself as well in Q3, but I think for everybody it would have been difficult. So that's not our excuse.

Oscar, the story of the season so far has been hundredths of a second separating positions on the grid. Yet you lost half a second between Q2 and Q3, a massive amount in 2025. Can you just tell us a little bit more about the size of that difference?
OP: Yeah. I mean, it's kind of what I just explained. My first lap in Q3, I wasn't that surprised that it was half a second off because of some, I mean, mistakes is probably harsh on myself, but just not predicting what the wind was going to do in certain corners maybe as well as I could have. But the second lap, I thought I did a better job of adjusting my expectations, and like I said, I didn't go any faster. So yeah, a bit strange, one for us to look through, but it wasn't very fun losing that half a second.

Let's throw it forward to the Grand Prix. Just how confident are you that you can win from P2 on the grid?
OP: Pretty confident. It was good last year, so hopefully it can be good again this year. But yeah, like Charles said, there's some rain around. We'll see if that impacts the race. But I think our pace has been good, but Charles has been quick all weekend, in certain sessions. It is a very difficult track to overtake on, and it's not going to be the easiest place to try and regain the lead.

How much grip is the new asphalt on the start-finish line giving you? Because traditionally the inside there has been dusty and slippery. Do you think you're going to get more grip from the new asphalt?
OP: It's hard to know. It's still off the racing line, so I expect it to still have the same problems. But we'll have to wait and see.

Lando, if we can just come to you, I mean, a story of your qualifying similar to Oscar's?
LN: I'll just copy and paste, yeah. Exactly the same. Q2 felt very good, felt confident to improve. So, into Q3, aiming for a similar lap time, similar limits, and just felt pretty dreadful. Same things. I wasn't surprised that I was a 15.4 in the first run. But in the second lap, it's just hard to know how much more to push or not push. And I was like, oh, it's a much better lap, and I was 15.4 again. So just similar thing. The wind has such big effects on the car when you're driving. It's quite easy for it to be half a second swing. So yeah, frustrating because we definitely seem to have a good gap, but in Q3 it seemed to drift away from us as a team more than it did for others.

Was it just the wind in Q3 or did the track temperature drop, I think, 15 degrees just during the course of the session?
LN: Just the wind.

Can we throw it forward to tomorrow? Given the unpredictable nature of the qualifying session we've just witnessed, how much does that tell us about the unpredictable nature of the race tomorrow?
LN: It depends what the weather is. Like the others said, could be some rain, which normally makes things more interesting. But I think we always have, at least in the race, a bit more of an advantage. But our main competitor over the last four, five races has been Charles and it's been the Ferrari. So, if there was anyone else that's going to be on pole today, it was going to be Charles. And if there's anyone that's going to make our life tough tomorrow, it's going to be the same guy. So yeah, we'll see. It's a long race, things can happen, and hopefully the rain can be on our side maybe.

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